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My Other Lives...
Somebody asked me recently what I did before the success of Wild West Express. Well...a lot of things that didn't make me near as happy as what I do now.
I worked in the film and TV industry for about six years
(as a stunt rider, as the bartender on Just Shoot Me, along with dozens of
really small roles, with my biggest highlight coming on Ocean's 11, working for five months as Matt Damon's stand-in). I also spent much of my youthful years following in the footsteps of both sides of the family tree training and breaking thoroughbred racehorses. Using a method of starting young horses and dealing with problem horses similar to that of Monty Roberts (who I
learned a great deal from), I worked with hundreds if not thousands of horses over the years.
But my true passion when I was young was songwriting... and I honed my craft for 15 years, touring, writing and recording, ending up with a handful of songs on television and film soundtracks. I was fortunate enough to be nominated for TNN's Trailblazer Award in 1996, several years after I'd left the music industry.
I was, coincidentally, working for one of our senior cast members, Steve Rothblum, training racehorses,
during that time period.
It was a series of incredible circumstances that led to the start of Wild West Express in 2000, and I thank God everyday for giving us,
and me, this opportunity to make hundreds of thousands of people around the country smile on an annual basis. I could not have written a better outcome for my life.
Every once in a while, I dust off some old cassette tapes of my originals and remember my all consuming passion for songwriting and for great songs. And for one particular girl...I've included five of the songs I wrote that were used on ABC TV in the late 1980s. They're pretty raw sounding by today's standards and I was perhaps not as polished as I should have been, but I think you might hear the emotion, as these songs were written and sung from my soul, and about and for the 'one who got away' and whom for I never quite got over, even now 20 years since I last saw her.
...Ken McMeans Jan. 2006
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Ocean's 11 (plus me)....
During
the five months I was on Ocean's 11, shooting in Vegas, Palm
Springs, and at Warner Brothers Studio , I had the opportunity to work
closely with Matt Damon (as his stand-in and for photo inserts). And thanks
to legendary Director Steven Soderbergh, I also was fortunate enough
to keep busy on Matt's slow days, as they brought me to set daily to
stand-in for other '11' members Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Eddie
Jemison (the computer nerd) and even the little Chinese acrobat (though I
didn't have to rehearse any of his acrobatic feats or contortions).
I do
remember though, towards the end of shooting, there was a scene in which all
five characters I was standing in for appeared together in one shot. I
attempted to move from one actor's mark to the next as the camera dollied,
not truly able to fill all of their shoes in the master shots at the same
time.
Mr.
Soderbergh is a man of few words as he intensely focuses on his task at
hand, most of the time doing the directing , manning the camera
and serving as Director of Photography as well. As he moved the camera
through the scene, he abruptly stopped after watching me leaping and jumping
from mark to mark , and he turned to the first AD and said "You know,
much as we like Ken..." and he turned to look at me, adding "and
you're doing a great job, let me say, but...can't we afford to hire another
stand-in or two when these five actors are in the same shot? If I remember
correctly, this is a pretty big budget film..."
Photos taken during the shooting of Ocean's 11
with Matt Damon and me, working on the shots in the bank vault, and Brad
Pitt and I on the Warner Brothers lot towards the end of the shoot.
With Bernie Mac and Don Cheadle and
the other Ocean's 11 stand-ns (for Brad, Bernie and Don) ...I had my first acting role opposite Don in the movie Volcano,
in which I grab his hat (and he yells at me) in the OEM early on in the film.
On the right is a Polaroid test photo for the Oceans 11 ad, in this case starring the stand-ins for the actors (that's me second from left,
and Joe, George Clooney's year round stand-in in the center))...
I beat George Clooney one time shooting a quick game of 'horse' on the lot at Warner Bros.
George is the king of the basketball court, wherever he goes- he's quite the
athlete. Me on the other hand, well, let me say b-ball ain't in my top 100
list of skills. So when I fluked and won, it devastated George (I'd like to
think). Always looking for the chance to be a wise guy, George never really got over it
and gave me crap everyday for awhile after that. And I have never played since. Quit while you're on top...
Movies I Did Something In...
The movie posters below
are films I worked on in some capacity (stunt rider, precision car driving,
speaking role, featured role, playing sides [role as musician],
stand-in/photo double, and as a lowly extra in one or two...)
    
 
     
 
 
   
 
 
   
 
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